Learning to swim

Question
Hi George,

I am a 52 year old male in average physical condition with a tad of arthritis in my neck and right shoulder.

I have registered for a 5 lesson individualized swim instruction course in the local high school.

Is it possible to learn to swim e.g crawl, breast stroke, back stroke, in 5 lessons of 1/2 hour length?  I am hopeful of learning the basic form/technique then hopefully finding time to practice these maybe once a week.

My goal is to be able to swim about 1/2 mile at the Cummings Beach, Stamford, CT this coming summer, the place where I grew up and did not return to since about 1971 when I went into the service and over to South East Asia for 2 years.

Thanks for your advice.

Best,
Michael

Answer
Michael--
You should be able to learn the basics to swim at least crawl and backstroke in the 5 lessons, but that isn't a lot of time to learn a tremendous amount.  If you have the practice time you should be able to accomplish your goal.  The hard part is gaining the endurance to swim that distance.If you can put more than one day a week into practice, you may be able to build up your endurance to make the distance.
I hope this is the answer you were looking for.
George